Artist Tammy Nguyen creates lush, dreamlike paintings that explore twentieth-century global political history. Vibrant colors, rich tropical vegetation, and a glittering canvas camouflage four figures in this painting. Look closely and you’ll see a profile of Virgil, the protagonist of Dante’s Divine Comedy, a fourteenth-century Italian poem that offers an imaginative vision of the afterlife. You’ll also see a dinosaur at the upper right, meant to refer to the Japanese monster Godzilla. To the left, two political leaders shake hands at the 1955 Bandung Conference, the first gathering of formerly colonized African and Asian countries.

The surreal imagery suggests these figures are somehow connected. What connections can you make? Nguyen’s use of camouflage appears to suggest the play between what is seen and unseen, or what is acknowledged and what is hidden throughout history. 

Tammy Nguyen (American, born 1984), What Sin is Purged Here in the Circle Where We Are Standing? Watercolor, vinyl paint, pastel, silkscreen printing, rubber stamping, hot stamping, and metal leaf on paper stretched over wood and gator board panels, 2023. 72 × 120 in. (182.9 × 304.8 cm). Purchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey, 2024.25a‒b. On view in Gallery 6.